I am completely lost while building a media server.

[berianmol]

Hi everyone, 

I am a PC enthusiast who has built 5  desktop computers mainly for myself and my friends. But I have always liked the idea of having my own personal media server where I can upload my family photos and videos and also add my ripped ultra HD and blue ray movies/shows. But the more I research on how to build one, the more confused I get. Which cpu to get or do i even need a GPU for transcoding and which HDD will be good? I get stressed out and then just give up. 

What I want to do is have movies/shows/photos/music and have multiple streams, one for my brother in Chile and have my main stream in my home India, I have mostly full HD data but also some 4k HDR files.

What I have right now 

- 1 gbps download and 20mbps upload fibre internet(I know 20 mbps upload is ridiculous but this is whats available here) 
- 2 X WD Blue 4TB Desktop Hard Disk Drive - 5400 RPM SATA 6 Gb/s 64MB Cache 3.5 Inch - WD40EZRZ 
- 2 X WD Red 6TB NAS Internal Hard Drive - 5400 RPM Class, SATA 6 Gb/s, SMR, 256MB Cache, 3.5" - WD60EFAX
- 2 X LaCie Mobile Drive 4TB External Hard Drive USB-C USB 3.0

I have absolutely no idea on how to proceed, should I just go and buy Synology NAS or build from scratch(leaning towards this, as it will be a fun experience) but if someone can guide me some to resources or web articles, that would be great. 

Appreciate it in advance. 

 

 

[FloRolf]

47 minutes ago, berianmol said:

just go and buy Synology NAS

I have both, a TrueNAS and a synology and I can safely say that I prefer the Synology. While it's generally less powerful and not as flexible, it's just so much easier, consumes less power, is smaller etc. 

Just do your research on which model meets your requirements. I recommend looking for used enclosures to save some money though. 

[steelo]

1 hour ago, berianmol said:

Hi everyone, 

I am a PC enthusiast who has built 5  desktop computers mainly for myself and my friends. But I have always liked the idea of having my own personal media server where I can upload my family photos and videos and also add my ripped ultra HD and blue ray movies/shows. But the more I research on how to build one, the more confused I get. Which cpu to get or do i even need a GPU for transcoding and which HDD will be good? I get stressed out and then just give up. 

What I want to do is have movies/shows/photos/music and have multiple streams, one for my brother in Chile and have my main stream in my home India, I have mostly full HD data but also some 4k HDR files.

What I have right now 

- 1 gbps download and 20mbps upload fibre internet(I know 20 mbps upload is ridiculous but this is whats available here) 
- 2 X WD Blue 4TB Desktop Hard Disk Drive - 5400 RPM SATA 6 Gb/s 64MB Cache 3.5 Inch - WD40EZRZ 
- 2 X WD Red 6TB NAS Internal Hard Drive - 5400 RPM Class, SATA 6 Gb/s, SMR, 256MB Cache, 3.5" - WD60EFAX
- 2 X LaCie Mobile Drive 4TB External Hard Drive USB-C USB 3.0

I have absolutely no idea on how to proceed, should I just go and buy Synology NAS or build from scratch(leaning towards this, as it will be a fun experience) but if someone can guide me some to resources or web articles, that would be great. 

Appreciate it in advance. 

 

 

Personally, I've never understood overcomplicated media servers for home use. I have a super simple set up which involves utilizing an old external hard drive that is connected to a tp link router via usb. I upload movies, pictures and tv shows which can be streamed to our roku tv. Done.

 

You don't need an overly powerful system to serve as a NAS. To give you an idea of how little processing power you need, in the past I've used a raspberry pi 3 connected to an external hdd, which worked just fine if videos did not require transcoding. While connected via ethernet port, it streamed 1080p video flawlessly.

 

Your media needs may be a bit more involved than mine, but I try to keep everything as simple and cost efficient as possible.

[jec6613]

If you want to do this for fun, get yourself a Plex or Emby license, or just use Jellyfin for your software stack.

 

For hardware, the best bet are going to be Intel Rocket Lake (11th gen), or if you can swing it, Alder Lake (12th gen).  The reason is they have a newer IGPU that will do the transcoding down to something your internet connection can handle on the fly.  Though pretty much any i5 11500 or better will be fine, you'll want a bigger board than you think you'll need, because all of that sweet sweet I/O goes to giving you more storage capacity.  Think Z590 or W580, or similar on Alder Lake.  You'll want a decent SSD for a boot drive, but nothing crazy is required - in the US I'm a fan of the WD Blue and SK Hynix Gold SSDs, and you should just use the NVME slots for your boot drive.  128 or 256 is fine, though I lean towards 256 GB nowadays since the cost difference is pretty minimal.

 

Then it comes down to storage array design, which can get very complicated very quickly (and is a whole other topic where budget becomes a big consideration).  This includes a chassis with lots of drive bays and lots of drives if it expands as time goes on.  In the meantime though, you are safe to just dangle a bunch of USB storage off the back of the system like you have now.  Suffice it to say: you can spend more on a pair of HDDs than the rest of the system cost put together.

[voyager_]

With wanting to be able to stream remotely expecially with larger HD or 4k files you'll probably want to build your own system. The Cpu doesn't have to be very powerfull. I have an unraid system with plex running in a docker with a Ryzen 1600 and 16Gb Ram. It manages 24Tb of storage, Home assistant VM, VPN, Plex, 3 Minecraft Servers, and a windows VM. Originally I had the CPU handling the transcoding and it would get pinned with a couple of transcodes. I added a Quadro K2200 that I picked up on ebay for $100 and now the cpu does almost nothing when having to transcode. You may be able to find an inexpensive pre-built and add a older quadro. Check out the p400 and p620 quadro's they can be used in a low profile case and have a lower power draw. 

[berianmol]

22 hours ago, FloRolf said:

I have both, a TrueNAS and a synology and I can safely say that I prefer the Synology. While it's generally less powerful and not as flexible, it's just so much easier, consumes less power, is smaller etc. 

Just do your research on which model meets your requirements. I recommend looking for used enclosures to save some money though. 

Thank you for replying. Synology DS920+ is what I am inclining towards. Appreciate the reply. 

[berianmol]

22 hours ago, steelo said:

Personally, I've never understood overcomplicated media servers for home use. I have a super simple set up which involves utilizing an old external hard drive that is connected to a tp link router via usb. I upload movies, pictures and tv shows which can be streamed to our roku tv. Done.

 

You don't need an overly powerful system to serve as a NAS. To give you an idea of how little processing power you need, in the past I've used a raspberry pi 3 connected to an external hdd, which worked just fine if videos did not require transcoding. While connected via ethernet port, it streamed 1080p video flawlessly.

 

Your media needs may be a bit more involved than mine, but I try to keep everything as simple and cost efficient as possible.

I looked at the reviews and the power and everything and looks like i am gonna go with ds920+

[wseaton]

Pre-built NAS (Synology) vs PC based NAS isn't the issue in my opinion.

 

Its the complete and utter inconsistency regarding what requirements Plex requires. 50 different opinions give 50 different answers. Its very annoying. I can spec a SQL failover cluster with more certainty than Plex requirements 

 

I heard Plex servers run faster on Asus MBs and with drives mounted in the vertical orientation.

[nicolaidenmark]

On 1/17/2022 at 11:56 PM, FloRolf said:

I have both, a TrueNAS and a synology and I can safely say that I prefer the Synology. While it's generally less powerful and not as flexible, it's just so much easier, consumes less power, is smaller etc. 

Just do your research on which model meets your requirements. I recommend looking for used enclosures to save some money though. 

I have a Synology DS918+ (4 bays) and whilst it is simple to use, the fact that they are not very powerful is a problem when one aims to transcode (I use Plex) video -  especially 4K. Building his own would allow for a much more powerful machine with a decent GPU to handle the (occasional?) transcoding.

If you need a powerful Synology for Plex 4K transcode and with a decent amount of bays, you'll have to fork out a serious amount of cash.

I love my Synology, however, with an SHR-1 setup,  2 x 10TB disc 85 percent full, more and more lossless 4K material to come (I use MakeMKV and MKVToolnix for remuxing) and my future camera likely to be with a 45-50+ MP sensor, I, too, am considering building a server with 8-12 bays, a GPU etc. for Plex.